Morning all

10.35am: Welcome to the county cricket live blog for the latest round of Championship action. Our writers will be here with all the day's play shortly. Richard Latham is at Taunton for Somerset v Durham and Brian Halford is at the Oval for Surrey v Warwickshire.

10.57am: Good morning from a gloriously sunny Taunton where Durham, reports Richard Latham, will resume their first innings on 353-8 after what may prove a day of missed opportunity for their batsmen. From a tea score of 264-2, the visitors contrived to lose six wickets in the final session against a Somerset attack deprived of Vernon Philander, recalled by South Africa, plus Steve Kirby, Gemaal Hussain, Adam Dibble and Craig Meschede, all ruled out by injury. With batting conditions near perfect, Somerset will regard bowling out their opponents for anything less than 400 as a good effort. Championship debutant Jamie Harrison and Liam Plunkett are the not out batsmen, with only Steve Harmison to come. Out with the sun cream and on with the cricket.

10.59am: Surrey won the toss and will bat, reports Brian Halford. They bring in Dernbach for Edwards as part of rotation policy. Warwickshire are unchanged from draw with Lancashire. Oval looking good. Hot and hazy. Flags limp. After weeks of shivering, suddenly we have a burst of high summer. Pitch yellow. Chris Adams has said he wants his team to be better on the first day of championship games. Let's see. Warwickshire need to hit back from their first moderate day of the season last Saturday, when Lancashire's Paul Horton blocked them out all day. Four pigeons at mid-off.

In 1953, this fixture was all over in a day as Warwickshire were all out for 45 and 52. Alec Bedser took 8 for 18 in the first innings and Jim Laker a hat-trick in the second. Don't think it will be quite like that today.Couldn't help wondering on walk in to the ground: Are their more bins in London than there are sheep in the Peak District?

11.26am: Surrey are 37 for 0 after 6 overs, writes Brian Halford. Lively over from Barker. Roy drives three fours through covers then edges and Clarke just fails to cling on to tough chance low at second slip. Party of excited, chattering schoolchildren at Vauxhall End bringing average age of spectator down quite spectacularly. Surrey will be aiming for very tall total here. Record highest v Warwickshire: 634 in 1906.

11.48am: Surrey are 50 for 1, writes Brian Halford. Having enjoyed himself through the off-side, Roy is beaten by one that nips back in and falls lbw to Barker for 21. De Bruyn, rather than Rudolph, comes in at three and watches Davies drive Wright gloriously through the covers for four. Two pigeons straight.

11.59am: Durham have been bowled out for 384, reports Richard Latham, adding 31 runs for their last two wickets this morning. Liam Plunkett (24) and Jamie Harrison (15) batted positively but Somerset will feel they have done a reasonable job after an opening stand of 158. Peter Trego had Harrison caught in the gully to register his 26th Championship wicket of the season. The all-rounder only took 27 in the whole of last summer. Alfonso Thomas had Plunkett caught behind to end the innings and is already proving his worth to Somerset on his first appearance of the season following a disappointing spell with Pune Warriors in the Indian Premier League. Arul Suppiah and Alex Barrow about to open the home side's reply.

12.05pm: Surrey 79 for 2 after highly entertaining first hour, types Brian Halford. Bowlers have no margin for error on this pitch. Any straying in line and length and whack... But Warwickshire struck second blow when Clarke's sixth ball drew De Bruyn into loose drive and Porterfield took low catch at gully. Surrey have invited children from every school in the county to attend tomorrow. Good proactive stuff.

12.29pm: Surrey are 103 for 3 after dabbling in a spot of self-destruction, emails Brian Halford. Davies, on 34, played Clarke to square leg, was sent back by Rudolph and failed to regain his ground as Ambrose ran from behind the stumps and registered a direct hit. Well over a run-a-minute. Wickets. Pigeons. Cracking stuff for the schoolchildren. What a way to spend a school day! Makes one feel rather bitter and twisted that we always got sent to Compton Wynyates. With the greatest respect to Compton Wynyates, that is.

1.25pm: Somerset 42-1 in the 14th over, scribbles Richard Latham, but by no means untroubled, with several appeals going unanswered. Jamie Harrison has bowled impressively on his Championship debut, claiming the wicket of Arul Suppiah, lbw pushing forward for four with the total on six. That brought Nick Compton to the crease, needing 130 more first class runs to reach 1,000 in May. He may fancy his chances now that the shine is going off the new ball, while the sun continues to beat down and the pitch looks made for batting. Marcus Trescothick has just visited the Press Box with his Olympic torch, having been one of the bearers through Taunton in Monday evening. Not ashamed to say I had my photo taken with him and it. "It felt like being part of history,.." said the injured Somerset captain. I think he was referring to his role in the torch relay, not the photo!

It's now Lunch at Taunton with Somerset 66-1. Both Alex Barrow and Nick Compton are on 25 and will look forward to adding substantially this afternoon, with barely a cloud in the sky and temperatures continuing to soar. Gemaal Hussain is currently being put through his paces on a prepared strip as he continues his recovery from a torn hamstring. The former Gloucestershire seamer has yet to make an appearance for Somerset this season, but may well do so in the CB40 match against Hampshire at Taunton on Sunday. For Durham lunch may need to be light with the prospect of two long hot sessions in the field.

1.26pm: Meanwhile, Surrey are 134 for 3 at lunch, reports Brian Halford. Rudolph 19, Hamilton-Brown 34. Hamilton-Brown's scores in the second innings of champo games so far this season: 89, 63, 76, 115, 70no. If he starts piling up a few in the first dig as well he will be in what is known as "half-decent form." Warwickshire will be quite happy with the session though. There's good carry in the wicket but it is good for batting. Ambrose's direct-hit run out of Davies was his second such piece of niftiness this season, by the way. He similarly ran out Collingwood when Durham visited Edgbaston.

2.00pm: Surrey 136 for 4, writes Brian Halford. Wright strikes in his first over after lunch as Rudolph, on 19, inside-edges to Ambrose. Having won the toss, Surrey won't be too happy that four gentlemen of their top order have reached double figures but failed to progress to 40. A seagull has arrived. It looks very much like the one that dropped it's load on Darren Maddy while he was addressing the media after a match at Hove in 2006. I hope there isn't a vendetta going on here.

2.01pm: Alex Barrow was caught behind down the leg side off Steve Harmison without adding to his 25 at lunch, says Richard Latham. The youngster looked crestfallen to be 'strangled', which may be a reflection on how good he thinks the pitch is. James Hildreth clearly felt there are no undue terrors awaiting him as he clipped three of the first four balls he received for four. Nick Compton actually needed 131 more runs for 1,000 at the start of his innings and is currently 28 not out, with Hildreth catching him up fast on 23. Somerset 93-2 in the 23rd over.

2.08pm: Surrey, writes Brian Halford, slip to 142 for 6 after a run out which, depending upon your allegiance, was comic or tragic. Hamilton-Brown played Wright up to mid-on and set off for a single, Maynard stayed put and the former was run out by yards as Troughton lobbed the ball to Ambrose easy as you like. Twas the captain's call so I think Maynard might be best off staying out there for a while. He won't be accompanied by Jordan, though, as he has just edged Woakes into the slips to go for 0.

2.40pm: Hildreth looked in prime form, writes Richard Latham, breezing to 53 off 39 balls, with 10 fours and a six. But the Somerset captain may now be sitting in the dressing room reflecting on the fact that it was the day for a big hundred, rather than a cameo half-century. He was bowled leg stump by Jamie Harrison attempting a pull through mid-wicket. The tempo is unlikely to drop as Craig Kieswetter has now joined Compton, who has moved steadily to 47. Somerset 153-3 in the 33rd over and the game intriguingly poised.

3.19pm: Surrey 204 for 8 after Maynard, having dug in well for 39, hung out his bat and edged Barker to the wicket-keeper, adds Brian Halford. It's cloudy now. Humid. Even a little gloomy.

Warwickshire are having a somewhat better day in the field against Surrey than they did on one occasion in 1913 when their fielding wilted so badly that Percy Fender reached his century with an all-run six.

3.45pm: Somerset are doing what Durham did in the final session yesterday, giving away wickets for no apparent reason, writes Richard Latham at Taunton.Compton pulled a catch to mid-wicket after looking rock solid in reaching 64. Then Jos Buttler was caught behind off a flashing cut without scoring.

The happy bowler in both cases was former Somerset favourite Ian Blackwell. Now Craig Kieswetter has fallen lbw to Callum Thorp for 42 and at 214-6 the home side are in danger of falling well behind on first innings. And all this in seemingly ideal batting conditions.

4.41pm: When Surrey chose to bat this morning they probably envisaged batting until around teatime tomorrow, writes Brian Halford. Instead they have just been all out for 223 on the stroke of tea today, Wright having had Dernbach caught by Ambrose for 0.

Four catches and a direct-hit run out for the wicketkeeper.We'll see after tea whether there is more in this pitch than everybody thought but it looks like a moderate total in the circs.

Loads of people out on the field during the tea interval. Well done to Surrey for permitting that. Any Test match ground which does not make a similar gesture to the loyal supporters and paying punters should rethink its policy immediately.

4.51pm: Tea at Taunton with Durham on top, writes Richard Latham. Somerset are 237-6, having been 199-3, and much rests on Peter Trego, unbeaten on 18. The home side are 147 runs behind and need a partnership. Craig Overton is seven not out and with only twin brother Jamie, Alfonso Thomas and George Dockrell to come, the 18-year-old needs to make his first major contribution with the bat.

Blackwell and Thorp have bowled well in the afternoon session, with Blackwell getting some turn at the Old Pavilion End. But it is batting errors which are keeping the scores down. Good to see former Somerset stalwart Keith Parsons, now Unicorns captain, playing with his two sons on the outfield during the interval.

5.14pm: Well done Craig Overton. A maiden Championship half-century just when it was needed full of meaty blows, which brought 10 boundaries, reports Richard Latham. The 18-year-old was caught behind the ball after reaching fifty, but shared a seventh-wicket stand of 99 with Peter Trego, which has put Somerset back in the game. They have moved quickly to 331-7, with Trego on 49 and Alfonso Thomas on 13. Durham's 384 still looks overtakable.

Meaker is on, seeking to improve his career-best for the third time this season.Reports from Arbroath suggest the pitch might turn later in the match. In which case, Warwickshire might just try to bat slow and big and then hope Patel does damage.

6.18pm: Warwickshire closing in on a near-perfect day for them as Varun Chopra completes 50 (96 balls, 7 fours) out of 96 for 1, writes Brian Halford at The Oval. Four overs remaining today.

6.20pm: And finally, writes Richard Latham, Somerset are 357-8 at the close, 27 runs behind, with Trego unbeaten on 67, having responsibly reined himself back in the closing stages. It's anybody's game at this stage and if the weather stays the same we will have two more full days for the story to unfold.